HHS layoffs undercut Trump's pledge to be 'fertilization president'

Source: The Hill

04/26/25 12:00 PM ET


President Trump has championed access to in vitro fertilization (IVF) and even dubbed himself the “fertilization president” early in his second term. But Department of Government Efficiency-induced layoffs at the Department and Health and Human Services (HHS) have decimated maternal health and reproductive medicine programs, including teams that report on fertility outcomes of IVF clinics, as well as those that track maternal health and mortality data.

Public health experts and reproductive health advocates say the cuts will have lasting consequences and make it more dangerous to be pregnant in the United States. They questioned how Trump’s promises to expand IVF, as well as the White House’s reported interest in boosting a lagging domestic birthrate, can be reconciled with the gutting of crucial tools that could help achieve those goals.

The HHS suddenly laid off 10,000 people at the start of this month, a sweeping move that included about three-quarters of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) reproductive health division, former CDC employees told The Hill.

Former fertility-focused agency employees who lost their jobs April 1 said they thought it was a mistake. “Trump said he was the fertility president. How does cutting this program support the administration’s position?” one former CDC employee said. “We fully expected that the team would be brought back once there was awareness that it had been eliminated. But as time has gone on, apparently there’s no intention of bringing anyone back,” said another.

Read more: https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/5266568-ivf-access-trump-reproductive/